Shwedagon Pagoda is one of the
world’s most sacred Buddhist
landmarks, and the holiest site
for Burmese pilgrims. Apart from the
myths and legends surrounding its beginning,
the great stupa is a curious
witness to Burma’s long and tumultuous
history of war, independence
struggle and politics.

“ Then, a golden mystery upheaved
itself on the horizon, a beautiful winking
wonder that blazed in the sun … ”
That was how Rudyard Kipling, the
Bombay-born English author and poet,
described Shwedagon Pagoda ten years after he first saw it in “From Sea to Sea and
Other Sketches” -- Letters of Travel vol. 1
(1899).

Epicentre of Burmese Politics

About 75 years earlier when the British
landed Rangoon during the first Anglo-
Burmese War, they immediately seized and
occupied the Shwedagon built on a hillock,
made it a fortress in a commanding position
over the city, remained there for two
years. The Second Anglo-Burmese War saw
the British re-occupation of the Shwedagon
in April 1852. This time the stupa was to
remain under their military control for 77
years until 1929. (Reference: Burma, By D.
G.E. HALL, M.A., D.LIT., Professor Emeritus
of the University of London and formerly
Professor of History in the University
of Rangoon, Burma, Third edition 1960.)
In 1920, students from the University
of Rangoon met at a pavilion on the southwest
corner of the pagoda and planned a
protest strike against the new University
Act which they believed would only benefit
the elite and perpetuate colonial rule. This
place is now commemorated by a memorial.

The result of the ensuing University
Boycott was the establishment of “national
schools” financed and run by the Burmese
people; this day has been commemorated
as the Burmese National Day since.

The terraces of the Shwedagon were again
where the student strikers camped out during
the second university students strike in
history of 1936.

Two years later, oilfield workers on
strike hiked all the way from the oilfields of
Chauk and Yenangyaung in central Burma
to Rangoon to establish a strike camp at
the Shwedagon Pagoda. This strike, supported
by the public as well as students
and came to be known as the ‘1300 Revolution’
after the Burmese calendar year, was
broken up by the police who, in their boots
raided the strike camps on the pagoda,
which offended Burmese who would remove
their shoes in pagoda precincts.

The “shoe question” on the pagoda had always
been a sensitive issue to the Burmese
people since colonial times. The Burmese
people had always removed shoes at all
Buddhist pagodas.

Hiram Cox, the British envoy to the
Burmese Court, in 1796, observed the
tradition by not visiting the pagoda rather
than take off his shoes. However, after the
annexation of lower Burma, European visitors
as well as troops posted at the pagoda
openly flouted the tradition. It was not
until 1919 that the British authorities finally
issued a regulation prohibiting footwear
in the precincts of the pagoda. However,
they put in an exception that employees of
the government on official business were
allowed footwear.

The regulation and its exception
clause moved to stir up the people and played a role in the beginnings of the nationalist
movement. Today, no footwear or
socks are allowed in the pagoda.

In January 1946, General Aung San,
father of detained opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, addressed a mass meeting at
the stupa, demanding “independence now”
from the British with a thinly veiled threat
of a general strike and uprising.

Forty-two years later, on August 26,
1988, his daughter addressed another mass
meeting of 500,000 people at the stupa,
demanding democracy from the military
regime, which marked the beginning of
the 8888 Uprising, the second struggle for
independence.

In September 2007, amidst the monkled
Saffron Revolution, the most serious
protests in the country since the 1988 uprising
against the military regime, Shwedagon
Pagoda once again was a witness to bloody
crackdown on protesting monks and civilians.
The protests started in Burma in mid-
August due primarily to the unannounced
decision of the ruling junta, the State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC), to remove
fuel subsidies which caused the price
of diesel and petrol to suddenly rise as
much as 66 percent, and the price of compressed
natural gas for buses to increase
fivefold in less than a week.

Led by students and opposition
political activists, including women, the
protest demonstrations were at first dealt
with quickly and harshly by the junta, with
dozens of protesters arrested and detained.
Starting September 18, the protests had
been led by thousands of Buddhist monks,
who were to be killed, or arrested late
September, most of which occurred near
the Shwedagon Pagoda.

Since then, the authorities have kept
their eyes on visitors to the pagoda, fearing
there may be yet another political movement
in the making.

The Legend

It begins with two ethnic Mon
merchant brothers who met the Buddha
himself. The Buddha gave them eight of his
hairs to be enshrined in Burma. With the
help of several nat (spirits) and the king of
Okkalapa, the builder of the majestic stupa,
the brothers discovered the hill where relics
of three preceding Buddhas had been
enshrined.

A chamber to house the relics was
built on the sacred spot and when the
hairs were taken from their golden casket,
a miracle happened: there was a tumult
among men and spirits... rays emitted by
the Hairs penetrated up to the heavens
above and down to hell... the blind beheld
objects... the deaf heard sounds...the dumb
spoke distinctly... the earth quaked... Mount
Meru shook... lightning flashed... gems
rained down until they were knee deep...
all trees of the Himalaya, though not in
season, bore blossoms and fruit. Once the
relics were safely placed in the new shrine,
a golden slab was laid on the chamber and
a golden stupa built over it. Over this was
layered a silver stupa, then a tin stupa, a
copper stupa, a lead stupa, a marble stupa
and an iron-brick stupa.

The truth of the legend has never been
questioned in the society that accepts the
cycle of rebirths and the fruit of karmic
deeds for the probability is there.